After The Fall
by elziebean1000
Summary: Taking place after the events of "Smoke Gets in your CSI's".
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter one -- this is my first E/C fanfiction story, please review, it would be nice to know how i'm doing so far =)**

**It had been a week before Calleigh was able to go back to work, she had spent that week mostly resting at her house trying not to think about what had happened, or even worse, what she was missing out on.**

**She was practically itching to start work again, after all, she was a southern woman who didn't like being cooped up with nothing much to do.**

**It hadn't been all bad though, Eric had spent a lot of the time with her, when he wasn't working anyway, he was so protective of her, didn't want her to strain herself, he had cooked her meals, kept the house tidy, practically mothered her.**

**The two of them had also had plenty of time to talk while they sat together and watched T.V. for a number of days in a row. She smiled to herself as she remembered some of the things that Eric had said to her during the most boring commercials.**

"_**How are you feeling? You had us all worried there for a while." Eric had asked Calleigh as they sat watching baseball.**_

"_**Not bad actually, my chest twinges a little bit, but I'm fine, really. I'm sorry you all worried." She had answered, feeling a bit guilty with herself.**_

"_**You told me that you knew I was there, and that you heard what I said." he had mumbled to her, suddenly becoming rather self-conscious and extremely interested in a loose thread on his shirt.**_

"_**Yeah, it really was like a dream, I could hear someone talking to me, it was so far away but somehow I knew it was you…I could feel you were there. Did you really mean what you said? About…"**_

"_**I did…I do" he had blurted before she had the chance to finish her sentence.**_

**Calleigh could tell in the hospital that Eric had meant everything he had said while she was fighting for survival, she could see it in his eyes after he had realised that she had heard everything he had said as he sat by her bedside.**

**She smiled to herself again, not only had Eric practically said to her what she had been waiting upon for weeks, it was also her first day back at work.**

**Acting over protective again, Eric had offered to drive her into the lab, Calleigh, not wanting to offend him, had agreed, so while she waited for him to collect her, she checked her make-up for what felt like the hundredth time.**

"**Perfect" she said to herself as she looked into her own emerald-green eyes.**

**Will update soon =)**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

**It was a little before 9:30 when Eric arrived at Calleigh's front door, he was anxious, believing that it was too soon for her to return to work after the fire incident.**

**He remembered how he had been after he had been shot, he had made the mistake of going back to work before he was fully recuperated, jumped straight into the deep end of the pool you could say, and it had caused him to make some mistakes which could of cost them the case.**

**He tapped on the front door, he was early but knowing Calleigh, she would be ready to leave, after all, it was her first day back in the lab and she would be desperate to go.**

**Calleigh opened her door with a huge grin on her face, Eric was dressed in his usual attire of a coloured shirt, open at the neck, and grey trousers, his jacket was clutched in one hand.**

"**Ready to go?" he asked her, he could see that she was but it was nice to ask anyway.**

**She led the way out of the building and all but ran to the department hummer that was sat waiting for its passengers. Eric laughed at her as she practically leapt into the passenger seat and sat impatiently for him to catch up to her.**

"**You're so slow! You must be getting tired in your old age." Calleigh teased playfully as he pulled himself into the tank-like vehicle. Eric stared into the emerald orbs that he loved so much and pouted before he fired up the hummer.**

"**Just because you have no patience Cal." he replied laughing, she knew he was telling the truth, she was very impatient, not that she liked to admit it. She laughed with him, even blushed a little, which was unusual for Calleigh Duquesne.**

**The ride to the lab could not be described as "uneventful", Calleigh, still desperate to sink her teeth into her work, attempted to "back-seat-drive" by telling Eric the quickest routes from her house to the lab and chattering about annoying slow drivers while tapping her fingers against the dashboard and checking her watch repeatedly.**

**When they finally arrived at Miami-Dade Crime Lab, Eric felt exhausted by Calleigh's constant chattering and had begun to feel like driving her to work was a big, big mistake.**

"**Never again" he muttered to himself.**

"**Sorry, what did you say?" Calleigh thought he had been talking to her, he smiled to himself, how much did he love her accent? The southern twang of her voice was like music to his ears after a hard days work.**

"**It doesn't matter, come on or you're gonna make us late." he said, not wanting to be interrogated by her. He led the way out of the parking lot to the elevator. When they arrived on the lab floor, Calleigh of course was the first one out.**

**It was almost as if she had never been gone, she was greeted with a few smiles that came from people either passing by her or working hard in their labs. She asked for any messages at the desk, there were none apart from a note to go to the break room after she had clocked in.**

**She and Eric made their way to the locker room to stash their coats and Calleigh's bag, she was half expecting Eric to tell her to go straight to the break room but he didn't.**

**Instead he sat down on one of the benches that lined the centre of the room and pulled Calleigh down next to him. She looked at him, slightly confused by the situation, but expected a lecture about taking it easy on her first day back.**

"**Cal, you don't have to be here today, you know that right? We can cope without you for a bit longer."**

"**Eric, I've told you I'm ready to work, I've been sat at home doing nothing for over a week, I want to do something useful." she explained to him, putting her hand on top of his while she did.**

"**Okay…but, if you feel like you need to go home, or you feel too tired, don't keep it to yourself." there was no point arguing with her, he knew that being raised in Louisiana by alcoholic parents had taught Calleigh to keep her feelings to herself, and to carry on the job without a complaint…even if she was practically on her deathbed.**

"**You'll be the first to know." she said with a smile, his favourite smile, to put him at ease.**

"**Good" he replied, returning the expression.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

**Calleigh and Eric left the locker room and made their way through the lab towards the break room, Calleigh hesitated a few meters away when she heard the noise that was coming from inside…music?**

"**Eric…wha…" she started before Eric hushed her by putting a finger to her lips, he grabbed her hand and began to pull her towards the room, looking rather guilty.**

**They turned the corner and made their way inside, Calleigh had heard music and people chattering away without a care in the world. The two of them were greeted by the rest of the team: Horatio, Alexx, Ryan, Natalia and Frank. Horatio, Alexx and Natalia were sat at the benches chatting to each other while Ryan and Frank were stood making coffee and rummaging through the fridge.**

**Horatio glanced up from the conversation when he heard Calleigh and Eric enter the room. Smiling he stood up and picked his sunglasses off the bench and let them dangle from his fingertips in the usual Horatio Caine manner.**

"**Miss Duquesne…welcome back." he announced, making the rest of the team look up and smile, Ryan turned off the music that was playing from a radio in the corner of the room.**

"**What's all this?" Calleigh asked the group, still looking rather confused and suspicious.**

"**Eric decided that it would be good for you to have a little party when you came back, after all, you did give us all a scare Honey." Alexx answered her, crossing the room as she did in order to give her a quick hug.**

**This revelation made Calleigh turn around and frown at her friend, but after seeing the guilty look still plastered across his face, she melted, after all, it was a sweet gesture.**

"**Well, I wouldn't exactly call it a party, a proper party needs a cake and balloons." he murmured.**

"**Not to mention food!" Frank stated, it didn't surprise anybody to hear Frank add that last little detail, after years of being a cop, Frank didn't like anything to be left out.**

**Everybody laughed at Frank's comment, it was true, which meant that the "party" couldn't really be considered a party at all…more of a random gathering.**

"**Well, thank you Eric, it was nice of y'all to do this but I wasn't gone long and…" she began before she was stopped by Horatio.**

"**We know that ma'am but, under the circumstances, I felt it necessary to have everyone in the room at the same time. The circumstances being that I feel, we all deserve some time together without having any crime to deal with."**

"**What you got in mind H?" Ryan quizzed, he hadn't felt like joining in with any meetings today, having had a bad nights sleep, but he was beginning to see the bright side of it.**

"**What I was thinking, Mr. Wolfe, was a night out at a very nice restaurant I found not far from Miami Beach. That's if, you're all up for it?" he asked, looking round at everybody.**

**It would be nice for everybody to just hang out after their shifts were over, no murders or crime sprees for them to worry about, just a group of friends having dinner together.**

**Eric glanced over to Calleigh, obviously trying to decide whether a night out would be good for her or just aggravate her lungs more.**

**Now that Horatio had given everybody the invitation to dinner, he handed out their assignments for that day, Ryan and Natalia had a double homicide in Coral Gables, while Eric and Calleigh were given a shooting near Biscayne Bay.**

**They all left for their destinations, Frank went with Ryan and Natalia, Alexx headed back to the morgue to do an autopsy on a John Doe who was found by the Night Shift team in the Glades. Horatio, watched everybody leave before he went back to his office to catch up on paper work that he had been attempting to avoid.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

**Eric drove both him and Calleigh to the crime scene in Biscayne Bay, he had been there to crime scenes plenty of times before and knew the way like the back of his hand. Calleigh looked over at him, he seemed uncomfortable for some reason, she knew him well enough to tell when he was ill at ease, this was definitely one of those times, but she couldn't pick up on the cause of his discomfort…her.**

"**Are you okay? You seem a little quiet." she asked him, trying to at least get him to say something.**

"**Yeah, fine, its just…I'm sorry I had you put on the spot before in the break room, I know you don't really like being the centre of attention."**

"**It's okay, really, it was nice of you to do that for me. I really don't mind so don't worry about it." Calleigh consoled him, flashing him one of her smiles. It seemed to work, he immediately perked up and began to talk about the details of the case that they already knew, which wasn't really much.**

**They arrived at the scene a little after 10:15am to find a Caucasian male with two gunshot wounds to the chest and abdomen lying on a boat that was moored at the bay. Calleigh leant over the body to examine the bullet entrance wounds.**

"**By the size of the entry wound, looks like he was shot by a 9mm, there's stippling on his clothes so I would say relatively close contact." she reported, taking pictures of the wounds from different angles. Eric could tell she was glad to be back at work, but it didn't stop him being anxious that she might overdo it and put stress on her lungs.**

"**So, are you gonna go to this restaurant?" Eric asked her, hoping she would say yes, it would be another opportunity for him be alone with her afterwards if he drove the two of them there.**

"**I think I might, I don't particularly want to be sat at home tonight, I've missed spending time with everyone." she answered with a smile. Eric could practically hear the clogs turning in her brain, trying to decide what she should wear.**

**They stayed at the crime scene for another half hour before they decided that they had collected all the evidence that was there. On the way back to the lab Calleigh got a phone call from Horatio.**

"**Duquesne, yeah H we're on our way back to the lab right now, the victims name is Derek Johnson…Eric found some footprints…the body's on the way to Alexx…okay, I'll tell Eric." she hung up, "H found out that our victim was married, he wants us to go and see the wife, she lives at Sunshine Drive in Key Biscayne, her name is Abigail."**

**The pair spent an hour talking to Abigail Johnson, she told them she had no idea who would want to kill her husband or why he was even on a boat, as they didn't own one themselves. She told them that her husband was nothing more than a simple teacher at the local school, the staff and the students seemed to like him, he was a popular but secretive man.**

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**The restaurant was more than what Horatio had told them in the lab, it was one of those in which it had a formal dress code. Horatio had provided everyone invited with an idea of what they should wear before their shifts were over.**

**Eric had once again, offered to drive Calleigh there, he went to her house to collect her a 7:30. As he stood waiting at her door he wondered if he had over done things, he was dressed in his best suit which hardly ever left his closet, except in very special occasions.**

**Calleigh took one last look in the mirror before going to answer her door, Eric was shocked when he first saw her, she was dressed in a knee length, low cut black dress that he thought clung to her in all the right places. As he stared open mouthed at her, he found that it took all of his strength to not kiss her there and then…he was hoping to save that until later.**

"**Wow…um…Cal, you look…uh…you look amazing." he stammered, feeling himself turn bright red as he struggled to find words.**

"**Thank you Eric, you don't clean up so bad yourself." she was having an equally difficult time trying to process just how gorgeous he looked. They stared at each other awkwardly for what felt like years before Eric decided that they were going to be late to meet the others at the restaurant.**

**When they eventually reached the restaurant, after a journey spent with the two of them trying not to look at each other, they found that it would just be them, Horatio, Ryan and Natalia as Alexx had to go home to look after Bryan and Jamie since her husband was working over-time and Frank had decided that he should catch up with the days worth of paperwork that had been collecting on his desk.**

**Horatio lead the others to a table that he had booked earlier that day, according to the waiter that was serving them, it was the best table in the restaurant.**

"**Only the best for my friends." Horatio had said.**

**The night was completely enjoyable for everybody, Natalia and Ryan chatted about what seemed like everything, except for work, with Horatio chipping in every now and then. Calleigh and Eric, who had been sat next to each other, talked mainly about the case. Eric felt like it was Calleigh's attempt to keep the conversation as far away from themselves as possible, that is until Horatio decided to join in and didn't like the choice of topic.**

"**I brought you here so that we could spend some time together without work getting in the way." He told them after they ordered a group dessert of strawberry/raspberry Pavlova. He could see that they were distracted, but didn't push the issue of talking about something else.**

**Calleigh did however take the hint and changed the subject to Eric's family. She knew that he was Cuban/Russian and had three sisters, but apart from that, she didn't know much else.**

" **Eric…what are your parents like? You don't really talk about them." she asked, she wasn't sure whether he would like to talk about his family, but seeing as though it was her asking, he might feel more comfortable.**

"**My parents are great, they've supported me though my life. What more could I ask for? Mama always thought I was special, after all, I'm the only boy in the family apart from my father."**

**Calleigh knew that Carmen Delko was quite protective of her son, after he had been shot, she came to visit the hospital that he was staying in, she even stayed with him during his rehabilitation. Calleigh had met her quite a few times during that period.**

"**Mama likes you, she told me about your talks when you met her. She said to me 'le gustas, se quedó aquí todo el tiempo. Ella es un buen amigo para hacer eso.' I knew you were there too. I never thanked you for the cross you gave me." he said the last line a huge smile on his face, staring straight into Calleigh's green eyes, he felt like he could declare his love for her there and then and not care about the consequences.**

"**Well, I guess we're even because I never thanked you for your watch."**

**With that, they decided that it was time that they left, everybody had finished eating and were beginning to run out of things to talk about, they had been at the restaurant for nearly two hours. Across the table, Ryan stifled a yawn before rising from his place and telling to group that he should leave.**

"**Thank you for this Horatio, it was really nice of you." Natalia said, agreeing with Ryan about it being time to leave. She leant over to him and gave him a quick hug before getting up to leave with Ryan.**

"**I'll see you guys tomorrow, thanks H." Ryan gave Horatio a quick tap on the back before turning to leave.**

"**See you tomorrow Wolverine!" Eric called after him, earning himself a death-stare. All Calleigh could do was giggle silently at Eric's reaction to the look, she hoped he didn't notice.**

**Translations**

**le gustas, se quedó aquí todo el tiempo. Ella es un buen amigo para hacer eso - she likes you, she didn't leave the whole time, it is a good friend to do that.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

"**Well, Miss Duquesne, Mr Delko, it was nice that you could both make it. I'll see you both tomorrow." Horatio gave the two of them a smile before turning to make his way out, leaving Calleigh and Eric sat at the table alone in silence.**

"**Hey Cal, do you want another drink or anything before we go? I'll buy." Eric asked her, he didn't particularly want to leave just let.**

"**No, thank you though. I want to be completely clear-headed for work tomorrow, I've gotta work on those bullets from this morning and I wanna get a head start." she answered him, she didn't want to leave either but she was beginning to get tired and had to get an early start in the morning.**

"**Okay, I'll drive you home then." Eric grinned at her, picking up her bag and her jacket from the back of her chair. As she moved past him, he put his hand on the small of her back and began to lead her out of the restaurant. She would of felt uncomfortable, or not even allowed it if any other person had done this, but she felt oddly at ease when it was Eric.**

**It was just after 10 at night when they arrived back at Calleigh's home, they didn't get out of Eric's car straight away, they just sat quietly trying to think of something to say to one another.**

"**Do you wanna come in for coffee Eric? We can talk about some stuff from the case." She didn't quite know it herself but she didn't actually want to talk about the case they were on, far from it.**

"**I thought you had an early morning tomorrow?" He quizzed her, he knew she didn't want to talk about the case as well, but he wouldn't really pass up the opportunity.**

"**Yeah, but a cup of coffee isn't going to make my head foggy tomorrow morning. I know it won't be your famous Cuban coffee, but the stuff I've got isn't that bad." she looked up at him and flashed him a smile that she knew he wouldn't be able to resist.**

"**I suppose I can give a different coffee a try, it wouldn't hurt." he stepped out of the car and moved around to the passenger side to open to door for Calleigh and the two of them went inside her house.**

**Calleigh ushered Eric inside before her, when she turned from closing the door behind her, she found Eric standing closer to her than she expected and practically walked into him.**

"**Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't know you where there." she laughed, putting her hands on each of his hips. She vaguely remembered the last time she had done that, she had been apologising after they had been discussing a case and she had started to take her frustration out on him.**

**Before she could say anything else to him, he put two fingers underneath her chin, and gently pulled her face closer two him as he bowed his head towards her. When their lips touched for the first time it took her breath away, it was better than she had ever imagined, she was also slightly shocked that he was finally, finally taking action towards their unspoken feelings for each other.**

**When they broke apart, she looked up at him, she could tell that he was relieved that she hadn't stopped him. His eyes were completely filled with love and passion for her only.**

"**Eric…" she started but couldn't find the words., "I'm guessing you don't want any coffee?" she was still completely overwhelmed by the kiss, but she knew it was stupid not to say anything.**

**Eric just laughed at her comment, it was better than he had imagined too, he had imagined this moment for years, but had never realised that his fantasies would never come close to the real thing.**

**He could tell she was tired, so he began to collect his things that he had put on her couch. He smiled again to her and made his way passed her to the door.**

"**Eric…will…will you stay with me?" Calleigh asked him just as he was about to walk out the door. He turned to look at her, shocked that she had asked him to stay, she had asked him to do this before but under very different circumstances. He remembered what he had said to her, so he repeated it.**

"**As long as you want me to."**

**End.**


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